Women and Equalities

Intersex

Emma Hardy: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent progress her department has made on theVariations in Sex Characteristics Call For Evidence.

Stuart Andrew: There has been a delay in publishing the VSC Call for Evidence report and the Government plans to release it in due course. The Government is considering the findings of the Call for Evidence and how it can improve outcomes for people with VSC.

Sanitary Protection: Costs

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of trends in the cost of period products in the last 12 months.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the financial impact on women of the increase in cost of period products in the last 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: The Government is committed to supporting the most vulnerable during the cost of living crisis and has taken a number of steps to ensure that necessities like period products are available and affordable for all who need them.Since January 2020, a Department for Education scheme provides free period products in schools and 16-19 education institutions in England. 97% of secondary schools, 92% of post-16 organisations and 68% primary schools have made at least one order since the scheme began in January 2020. Since 2019 the NHS has also offered free period products to every hospital patient who needs them (including long-term in-patients).In addition, we have been clear that a zero rate of VAT applies to period products. These products are essential, so it is right that there is now no VAT charge. This is part of the Government's wider strategy to make period products affordable and available for all women.

Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence: Artificial Intelligence

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department uses automated decision making in relation to personnel.

Dr Andrew Murrison: While increasing use is being made of automation to support decision-making across the single Service workforce management domains, there are no automated systems currently in service, nor any in development, that will make decisions independently of human intervention. Automated support is streamlining many of the labour-intensive processes which historically have denuded the capacity of single Service workforce planners and managers to focus on resolving people issues as they arise. For example, recruitment processes may use some automation to inform applicants if they are ineligible for a particular role due to their age or nationality, but the system does provide contact details that can be used to discuss potential eligibility for alternative roles. When recruiting into the Civil Service we may assess candidates using a psychometric test. Tests are taken online, and the test score is calculated from the individual's responses, which are compared with the results of a peer group who took the same test, creating a percentile. Individuals need to reach the pass mark for the test to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment.

Ministry of Defence: Artificial Intelligence

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department uses automated decision making in relation to procurement.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence does not use automated decision making in relation to procurement.

Defence: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the annual SME spend in (a) monetary value and (b) proportionate contractual value for the individual 19 prime contractors.

James Cartlidge: The results of the annual SME survey are published by the Cabinet Office (Central Government spend with SMEs - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) for all Government Departments. Results of the 2021-22 survey are expected to be released by the end of May. Due to commercial sensitivities, the results will be aggregated as a total spend amount and percentage of Ministry of Defence procurement spend, and not attributable to individual contractors.

Air Force: Employment

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many regular and reserve personnel were serving in the Royal Air Force on 9 April 2023.

Dr Andrew Murrison: To release this information would be a breach of the Official Statistical protocols for which the Department is held to account by the UK Statistics Authority. Armed Forces personnel statistics are published on a quarterly basis on the Gov.UK website. The next publication date will be 15 June 2023 for data as at 1 April 2023. Data for 1 January 2023 can be found in the table below: Number of Royal Air Force (RAF) Personnel as at 1 January 2023RAF Regular Personnel32,490RAF Reserve Personnel3,178

Army: Employment

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he will take to ensure that a reduction in the number of Army personnel does not inhibit the UK from meeting its defence commitments to NATO.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Ministry of Defence is reviewing whether it is now right to reduce the Regular Army to 73,000, as planned under Future Soldier. That process is ongoing.Defence is committed to remaining a leading contributor to NATO and our approach and force development are deliberately aligned to the new NATO Strategic Concept and designed to promote interoperability and facilitate collaboration.Any specific policy changes or updates required related to defence capability and force design will be determined once the update to the Defence Command Paper has concluded.

Army: Employment

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason has decided to reduce the number of Army personnel by 10,000.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Ministry of Defence is reviewing whether it is now right to reduce the Regular Army to 73,000, as planned under Future Soldier. That process is ongoing.Our capabilities and readiness levels are regularly reviewed to ensure our strategic approach remains in line with agile planning mechanisms.Any specific policy changes or updates required related to defence capability and force design will be determined once the update to the Defence Command Paper has concluded.

Cabinet Office

Minister without Portfolio

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2023 to Question 183041 on Minister without Portfolio, whether the Minister without Portfolio has purchased a decommissioned ministerial red box for his own personal use from (a) her Department, (b) the former Department for International Trade, and (c) the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, since 1 January 2018.

Alex Burghart: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cabinet Office: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Alex Burghart: The following table includes the recorded number of missing or lost ministerial red boxes by the Cabinet Office and the recorded number of red boxes which have had their security features removed between 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.  1 May 2018 - 30 April 2023Reported missing or lost0Had security features removed for personal use0 I would also refer the Rt Hon Lady to my previous answer to her (UIN 183041) and reiterate that purchasing and repairing red boxes and folders is a routine Government practice under successive administrations, including the last Labour Government.

Government Departments: Internet

Drew Hendry: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to prevent the fraudulent copying of Government web pages to charge users for services.

Alex Burghart: Any misuse of GOV.UK’s brand elements (such as the logo, crown, and Government Digital Service (GDS) Transport typeface) is illegal, and these elements are protected by crown-copyright. Digital, cyber security and brand protection teams across government work closely with the National Cyber Security Centre to detect and respond to fraudulent sites posing as government, and in doing so to protect the UK public from scams. A range of monitoring tools and intelligence sources are used to identify these scams, and members of the public are encouraged to report these (e.g., directly to NCSC, or to the relevant government department). Government continues to improve these capabilities, as it will always remain challenging to reliably and rapidly detect all fraudulent sites. Once detected, multiple techniques can be used to remove these sites from the Internet or otherwise reduce their impact on the public. This includes, but is not limited to, coordinating with industry partners to take down the web domain or remove the underlying systems hosting the site from the Internet, taking direct legal action, or escalating to law enforcement.

Government Departments: Land and Property

Munira Wilson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to publish an updated Transparency Report on the Government's land and property disposals in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.

Alex Burghart: In recent years, the Cabinet Office has reported information on receipts from property disposals through its annual State of the Estate report which is laid before Parliament (SOFTE 2020-21; SOFTE 2021-22). The Department plans to continue to do this.

Infosys: Contracts

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the processes were for appointing Government contracts to Infosys Limited.

Alex Burghart: Public sector contracting authorities are required to purchase products and services through competitive tender in accordance with public procurement legislation, and are responsible for their own commercial decisions, including the award of contracts.

Emigration

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the number of UK citizens that emigrated to (a) Australia, (b) New Zealand, (c) the US and (d) Canada in the last 12 months.

Alex Burghart: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 16 March is attached and the completed answer will be deposited in the House of Commons Library.  ONS Response (pdf, 107.0KB)

Key Workers: Long Covid

Deidre Brock: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will take steps to record data on the number of keyworkers who have (a) been affected, (b) taken early retirement, (c) lost their jobs and (d) become reliant on benefits due to long covid.

Jeremy Quin: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 24 February is attached and the completed answer will be deposited in the House of Commons Library. UKSA Response to PQ 152238 (pdf, 106.7KB)UKSA Response to PQ 152238 (pdf, 110.2KB)

Foreign Investment in UK: Bolton

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the level of foreign direct investment into Bolton in the period since 2010.

Jeremy Quin: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon Lady’s Parliamentary Question of 27 March is attached and the completed answer will be deposited in the House of Commons Library. UKSA Response (pdf, 105.9KB)

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Internet: Fraud

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including measures to help tackle fake online reviews in the Online Safety Bill.

Paul Scully: Online fake reviews are not within scope of the Online Safety Bill but are being addressed through separate legislation. The new Digital Markets and Consumers Competition Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 25 April, includes a delegated power to amend the ‘blacklist’ of automatically unfair practices set out in the Bill.The first intended use of this power is to add practices related to fake and misleading reviews following consultation during Bill passage. This will give greater clarity to business and consumers and, where fake reviews are posted, allow enforcers to take effective action quickly.

Data Protection

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the recording regulations in the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that consent is obtained from all parties before the processing of data can take place.

Paul Scully: The UK’s data protection legislation is now set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation. Like the previous legislation, consent is not the only lawful ground on which processing of personal data can occur. For example, it might be necessary for organisations to process data for public interest reasons, such as crime prevention or safeguarding, without seeking the consent of the individual first. Similarly, there may be some non-intrusive commercial activities that customers may reasonably expect organisations to take without seeking their specific consent.We are taking steps in the Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill to reform aspects of the current legislation. Where processing of personal data is based on a person’s consent, the Bill will not make any changes to the rules which require consent to be freely given, specific and informed. The Bill will make some changes to existing record-keeping requirements which can place unnecessary burdens on small businesses in particular. In the future, organisations will only have to keep records of their processing activities if their processing activities are likely to pose high risks to the rights and freedoms of individuals. This will help to make sure that organisations are not spending disproportionate amounts of time and resources on unnecessary paperwork.

Artificial Intelligence: Regulation

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to her Department’s White Paper New world leading approach to AI in the UK, published on 29 March, how much and what proportion of the budget of each existing regulator is spent on regulation of artificial intelligence; how many staff in each regulator work (a) wholly and (b) partly on these issues; and whether those regulators plan to increase the resources for work on artificial intelligence.

Paul Scully: The different applications and uses of AI technologies are becoming increasingly central to many UK regulators within their domains, noting the faster adoption rates in some sectors - such as Finance, Information Technology, Media and Telecoms.As part of the AI regulation White Paper consultation, we are engaging closely with regulators across the landscape and their sponsoring government departments to understand their relative levels of capability - noting that it is not a straightforward exercise to identify distinct 'AI resource'. We will continue to work closely with regulators to ensure that our regulatory framework for AI can be implemented effectively, including by exploring regulatory capability gaps and possible solutions or mitigations.We are also developing a range of functions, outlined in the White Paper, to support regulators to undertake their regulatory activities. The proposed monitoring and evaluation function, along with other central functions designed to support implementation by regulators, including by supporting coordination between regulator, will allow us to quickly identify if regulator capability is a barrier to implementation and leverage existing AI expertise across government to build capability where necessary.Alongside this, our regulators are already coordinating and working together to share expertise and ensure that AI innovations have efficient and safe regulatory routes to market, for example using forums like the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and the NHS AI and digital regulations service; or initiatives like the ICO’s award-winning AI and Data Protection Risk Mitigation Toolkit, or the MHRA’s ground-breaking Software and AI as a Medical Device Change Programme Roadmap.We will be providing further details as part of the publication of the White Paper Consultation Response in the autumn. We encourage responses to the consultation - including in the context of regulators’ capabilities - before the 21 June deadline.

Space Technology

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate her Department has made of the (a) size and (b) growth rate of the commercial space and satellite sector in the UK in (i) the 2022-23 and (ii) each of the last three financial years.

Paul Scully: The Department is committed to supporting the growth of the commercial space and satellite sector in the UK. Data on the size and growth rate of the commercial space and satellite sector in the UK is currently unavailable for 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Department is committed to publishing updated figures as they become available. The latest data available for the previous three financial years is set out in the table below. The figures and growth rates are inflation-adjusted based on 2020/21 prices.YearUK space industry income, 2020/21 prices (£m)Real growth (year-on-year percentage)2018/1916,8835.8%2019/2016,632-1.5%2020/2117,4755.1%

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Cuba: Food

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government has provided assistance to the Republic of Cuba to tackle food shortages.

David Rutley: Our Ambassador to Havana and officials in London regularly engage with the Cuban authorities on how the UK and Cuba can work together to support each other. We have not received a request for assistance from the Cuban Government for aid.

Ukraine: Reconstruction

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that civil society organisations representing (a) environment, (b) sustainability and (c) nature interests are able to attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference.

Leo Docherty: While private sector is the focus for the conference, we want to ensure that Ukraine's diverse civil society is represented and heard at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC23). We are working closely with the Government of Ukraine and a wide range of partners to ensure that the Lugano principles are reaffirmed at the conference and official side events. This 'whole of society' approach has meant that delegates have been shortlisted with criteria including diversity and representation across national, regional and local levels in mind. Civil society organisations representing environmental and sustainability interests have been invited to the URC.

Turkey: Elections

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the results of the Turkish elections on 14 May 2023 on NATO policy.

Leo Docherty: We will look to engage with Turkey, our NATO ally, at the earliest opportunity following elections. We have encouraged Turkey to provide a clear path for Sweden's NATO accession and it remains our objective to meet together as an Alliance of 32 States in Vilnius.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Sir Robert Buckland: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential humanitarian impact of an expulsion of Afghan refugees in Turkey.

Leo Docherty: Turkey retains the sovereign right to decide who it admits into and deports from the country and has no obligation to explain its decisions to other governments. Turkey is host to the largest number of refugees in the world, approximately 15% of the world's refugee population.

Ukraine: Reconstruction

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking steps to ensure that the Ukraine Recovery Conference focuses on achieving a sustainable recovery.

Leo Docherty: The Ukraine Recovery Conference will showcase the strength and potential of the private sector in supporting Ukraine to "build back better" in a sustainable manner, integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions, including green transition. The Conference will provide a platform for the Government of Ukraine to set out its priority reforms, particularly in the business environment, and for international partners to signal their support and their offer to Ukraine. The Conference will look at how to unblock obstacles to investment and how governments, the private sector and civil society can work together to support recovery and reconstruction efforts in the longer-term.

Sudan: British Nationals Abroad

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reunite UK citizens with close family members who remain in Sudan.

Judith Cummins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking steps to help support forcibly displaced Sudanese citizens with family members already in the UK.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Since 25 April, the UK has supported the departure of 2,450 people, including British nationals, dependants, and other eligible nationals out of Sudan. The UK Government continues to provide limited consular assistance to British nationals still in Sudan and to those who have left by alternative means to neighbouring countries.

Sudan: Humanitarian Aid

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his department is taking to support the creation of humanitarian corridors out of Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Securing the safe passage for civilians fleeing Sudan, the protection of civilians and respect of International Law is an FCDO priority. To achieve this, we are pursuing all diplomatic avenues, including at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, through engagement with the conflicting parties, and through cooperation with counterparts from African, Quad (KSA, UAE, UK, USA) and European countries, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union and United Nations agencies.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Politics and Government

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the (a) political and (b) security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government has a long-standing commitment to supporting prosperity, development and stability in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We continue to monitor the security situation in eastern DRC closely and are saddened by the grave humanitarian consequences. We are one of a few partners who have a permanent presence in Goma, despite the security challenges, and will continue to operate in the east to work with the Government and humanitarian partners. We have taken over chair of the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes where we are in regular contact with likeminded partners and are working together to support progress on the ground. The UK is working with stakeholders to support the delivery of elections this year. We continue to emphasise the need for these to be free, fair, inclusive and transparent to support long-term stability and prosperity.

Sudan: International Assistance

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the United Nations Security Council resolution on the mandate for the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission In Sudan, what steps he is taking to support greater efficacy in United Nations (a) support for civilian political and civil society actors, (b) prioritisation of civilian governance and security sector reform, (c) protection of civilians, (d) human rights monitoring and atrocity prevention work in Sudan, (e) improving humanitarian access across Sudan. and (f) other work in Sudan over the mandate period from June 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, the UK will lead the renewal of the mandate for the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). Working with Council Members, we will ensure that UNITAMS has an effective mandate to address the changed situation on the ground.

Sudan: Refugees

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of refugees fleeing Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As of 11 May, up to 200,000 people are estimated to have fled Sudan to neighbouring countries since fighting broke out. This number is expected to increase further as violence continues.

Development Aid

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to allocate Official Development Assistance to meet the objectives of the Prosperity Fund.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO Prosperity Fund is closed so does not apply to our Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations.

South Africa: Aviation

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has had discussions with the South African government on the landing of a Russian aircraft owned by Aviacon Zitotrans at Waterkloof airbase.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO has not had direct discussions with the South African Government on the landing of Aviacon Zitotrans in Waterkloof airbase. The South African Government issued a statement that the plane delivered diplomatic mail and all usual processes were followed.

Vaccination

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to restore access to immunisation services around the world.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted global health and immunisation. The UK Government is committed to supporting efforts to get routine immunisation back on track and has committed £1.65 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance from 2021-2025 to support their mission to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives from vaccine preventable diseases over this period.Alongside our Gavi investment, we are committed to working with countries and with the wider international community to focus efforts on building stronger primary health systems for the future as a core part of restoring immunisation services around the world.

Nigeria: Abduction

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the (a) whereabouts and (b) wellbeing of the Nigerian women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government condemns the abduction and continued captivity of children by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa (ISWA) in North East Nigeria. This includes the 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls, around 100 of whom are understood still to be missing. I [Andrew Mitchell] raised this case specifically with incoming Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, in December 2022. Through the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership, we have also provided mentoring and capacity building for the Nigerian Police Force to improve their response to kidnappings. We remain committed to supporting the Nigerian Government to secure the release of all those held captive.

South Africa: Foreign Relations

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the government of South Africa (a) joining naval exercises with Russia and China and (b) raising the possibility of extending diplomatic immunity to visiting heads of state under ICC indictment; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is working with the UN and partners across Africa to protect the UN charter and insist on the end of Russia's illegal invasion. The UK was disappointed with South Africa's decision to hold a military exercise with Russia, which coincided with the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine. The Foreign Secretary discussed a range of issues, including the Ukraine conflict, with South African Foreign Minister Pandor on 6 May 2023. The UK remains committed to our long-term relationship with South Africa. We encourage all International Criminal Court (ICC) States Parties to adhere to the Rome Statute and to co-operate with the ICC in line with their international obligations.

Emmerson Mnangagwa

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether members of His Majesty’s government have met President Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe since 1 May.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: I [Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell] met President Mnangagwa on 5 May. We discussed a range of issues including the importance of peaceful, credible and inclusive elections in Zimbabwe later this year.

Sudan: Politics and Government

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the situation in Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO is monitoring the situation in Sudan closely. Our top priorities are to secure a ceasefire of hostilities, unhindered humanitarian access, the protection of civilians and respect of International Law, and to bring all parties back to peaceful political dialogue. To achieve this, we are pursuing all diplomatic avenues, including at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, through engagement with the conflicting parties, and through cooperation with counterparts from African, Quad (KSA, UAE, UK, US) and European countries, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union and the United Nations.

Sudan: Refugees

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to provide the Government of Chad with financial assistance to help support Sudanese refugees.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: On 4 May, the UK Government announced an initial £5 million of life-saving aid to help meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of refugees and returnees who have fled the violence in Sudan. In Chad, this includes an allocation of £2.5 million to the World Food Programme and non-governmental organisations through the UK's Sahel Regional Fund.

Vaccination

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to restore access to immunisation services around the world.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted global health and immunisation. The UK Government is committed to supporting efforts to get routine immunisation back on track and has committed £1.65 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance from 2021-2025 to support their mission to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives from vaccine preventable diseases over this period.Alongside our Gavi investment, we are committed to working with countries and with the wider international community to focus efforts on building stronger primary health systems for the future as a core part of restoring immunisation services around the world.

East Africa: Humanitarian Aid

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will increase the amount of humanitarian funding committed to tackling hunger in East Africa.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is a longstanding and major humanitarian donor to East Africa. Since 2019 the UK has allocated more than £1 billion in humanitarian support throughout the region. UK funded relief activities have benefitted tens of millions of people. We will share details of our planned humanitarian expenditure for the region in 2023/2024 at the upcoming Horn of Africa pledging conference which takes place in New York on 24 May.

British Overseas Territories: Girlguiding UK

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make a statement on the recent decision by Girlguiding UK to end its operations in British Overseas Territories.

David Rutley: The UK maintains strong cultural links with the Overseas Territories and our continuing partnership bring benefits to the UK and to the Territories. The Government shares the disappointment felt in the Overseas Territories at the decision of Girlguiding UK to end support for British Girlguiding Overseas operations and urge them to reconsider how they can support Girlguiding in the Overseas Territories.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.

David Rutley: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are aware of the legislation and consideration is being given to the potential impact and how we might respond.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

David Rutley: According to our records, no Ministerial red boxes have been reported lost or stolen from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023. There is no explicit requirement for the FCDO to record instances where security features have been removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers. If the decision is taken that the Minister may keep their red box, but several of the FCDO's boxes share the same lock, the Minister would need to cover the full cost of changing the relevant locks.

Imran Khan

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his Department is having with officials in Pakistan following the removal and arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan; and what assessment he has made of the civil unrest in Pakistan as a result of his removal.

Leo Docherty: As the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have said, the UK has a close and longstanding relationship with Pakistan. We support peaceful democratic processes and adherence to the rule of law and we are continuing to monitor the situation in Pakistan. Lord [Tariq] Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia, has spoken to the High Commissioner for Pakistan to the UK and to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar.

Food Supply

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will publish information on the campaign to improve global food security and nutrition as part of the Integrated Review Refresh.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: Minister Mitchell set out further details of the global food security and nutrition campaign in his recent speech on international development at Chatham House. This included announcing an event towards the end of the year to bring together British and international expertise in tackling hunger and starvation with the support of the academic, medical, research, philanthropic, and NGO and charity community. We will publish further information on actions that have been taken to deliver the campaign throughout the year, for example funding announcements and details of Ministerial visits and engagements (such as this publication on .gov.uk on the UK-hosted Agriculture Breakthrough: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/agriculture-breakthrough-ministerial-meeting-minister-trevelyans-speech-in-washington-dc). The Department engages regularly with a range of stakeholders to consult and inform them on the progress of the campaign.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Islamophobia

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Government plans to appoint a new independent adviser on tackling Islamophobia.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 182938 on 9 May 2023.

Social Rented Housing: Waiting Lists

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many households were on their local authority waiting list for social housing in (a) the last six months, (b) 2022, (c) 2020 and (d) 2018.

Dehenna Davison: This information is already publicly available as of 31 March here.

Voter Authority Certificates: Photographs

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate his Department has made of the number of applications for Voter Authority Certificates that were rejected because the photograph submitted did not meet the required standards.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon. Member to the response given to UIN 181125 on 20 April 2023.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Dehenna Davison: None.

Homelessness: Newcastle upon Tyne

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has had recent discussions with Newcastle City Council on the adequacy of the level of support for homeless people in Newcastle.

Felicity Buchan: Newcastle City Council are being provided with in excess of £4 million over three years through the Homelessness Prevention Grant and Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022 –25.The Department has regular conversations with local authorities about their homelessness services and plans for ending rough sleeping.

Housing: Gardens

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the area of (a) London and (b) other towns and cities covered by residential gardens.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the area of residential garden (a) built on and (b) covered with hard surface in the last 10 years.

Rachel Maclean: Data on the area of residential gardens as at April 2022 expressed as a percentage of the total land area in hectares is already publicly available here. Separate figures are given for England as a whole, each region and each local authority.And information on the amounts of land changing use from residential gardens to other uses is also available here.

Rented Housing: Young People

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of his policies on renters reform on stepping stone accommodation for vulnerable young people that offer fixed term housing at deflated rents.

Rachel Maclean: In the Government response to our consultation 'A New Deal for Renting', we committed to introduce specific grounds for possession for supported and temporary accommodation providers. These will apply in limited situations, where it is necessary to enable them to continue to operate critical services.

Private Rented Housing

Selaine Saxby: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the white paper entitled A Fairer Private Rented Sector, published on 16 June 2022, what plans he has to bring forward the Renters Reform Bill.

Rachel Maclean: Everybody has a right to a secure and decent home. The Government has today introduced the Renters (Reform) Bill which will deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rented sector that is fit for the 21st century and works for both tenants and landlords.

Right to Buy Scheme: Midlands

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot between 2018 and 2021.

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot between 2018 and 2021, whether his Department plans to introduce a full-scale rollout of that scheme.

Rachel Maclean: The Government remains committed to the Right to Buy, which since 1980 has enabled over two million social housing tenants to become homeowners.Any future announcements will be set out in the usual way.The Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot was independently evaluated by RSM Economic Consulting, with the report published in 2021.

Housing: Overcrowding

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps he has help reduce the level of household overcrowding among UK households of (a) Bangladeshi and (b) Pakistani heritage.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the differential impacts of removing mandatory housing targets on households of different ethnic backgrounds.

Rachel Maclean: Local authorities have a wide range of powers to require landlords to remedy serious hazards, including overcrowding, in privately rented homes, and our forthcoming reforms to the private rented sector will strengthen these powers.We are carefully analysing the responses to the consultation, and any subsequent changes in policy will be confirmed when the Framework is updated in due course. The proposals in the consultation are not, at this time, government policy.

Leasehold

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to assist non-qualifying leaseholders in selling their properties.

Lee Rowley: On 20 December 2022, the six largest mortgage lenders released a joint statement confirming that, subject to their normal policy requirements, they will consider mortgage applications on properties in buildings in England of 11 metres or 5 storeys and above with building safety issues. There is no requirement for the building to have been remediated or the lease to be qualifying, providing it is part of a developer or government remediation scheme, or the property is protected by the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act.

Local Government: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to assess the performance of local authorities.

Lee Rowley: We are setting up the Office for Local Government (Oflog); a data-driven body with the purpose of providing meaningful and authoritative source of information about the performance of local authorities.

Department of Health and Social Care

Protective Clothing: Waste Disposal

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of usable energy generation from the 3.14 billion items of PPE removed from stock through incineration up to 28 February 2023.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Protective Clothing: China

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May to question 172423 on Protective Clothing: China, what proportion of the items of Personal Protective Equipment disposed of since September 2022, has been (a) donated to other countries, (b) recycled and (c) sold.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Surveys

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring the Office for National Statistics to continue to publish covid-19 data.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the federated data platform will (a) process and (b) be a repository of (i) anonymised patient data and (b) pseudonymised patient data.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of training NHS staff to use the federated data platform; and whether those costs are included in the specified value of the contract.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many patients in England have written to NHS trusts to ask that their NHS data is not uploaded to the federated data platform.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking in the tendering process for the federated data platform contact to ensure that everyone working on the platform has an adequate level of security clearance.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services: Technology

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) National Institute for Health and Care (NICE), (b) NHS England and (c) other system partners on the potential merits of lowering the discount rate applied to technologies with health gains evaluated by NICE.

Will Quince: Department officials regularly discuss a range of issues with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England, including related to aspects of NICE’s methods for health technology evaluation.

NHS: Strikes

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with representatives of the NHS on thee Strikes (Minimum Service Level) Bill.

Will Quince: I met with representatives of National Health Service Providers on 10 May 2023 and discussed minimum service levels in the health sector with relation to the Strikes (Minimum Service Level) Bill on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Departmental officials have engaged with officials in NHS organisations in relation to the public consultation on whether to introduce minimum service levels for ambulance services in the event of strike action in England, Wales and Scotland.

Drugs: Procurement

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure transparency in public procurement in relation to the pharmaceutical industry.

Will Quince: All procurements including those from the pharmaceutical industry must follow strict laws and guidelines. The Public Contract Regulations 2015 set out how public procurements should be conducted in order to be compliant, open, fair and transparent. The Procurement Policy Note, PPN 01/23, is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0123-requirements-to-publish-on-contracts-finderIt clearly illustrates how the openness, fairness and transparency requirements must be followed from prior to the procurement starting to after it is concluded.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of pharmacists working in the community; what assessment he has made of the potential impact of direct referral will impact on the number of pharmacists required; and what estimate he has made of that number.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) increase the number of community pharmacists and (b) help support community pharmacists with their running costs.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of skills of community pharmacists to provide primary care services; and whether he plans to take steps to include pharmacy technicians as part of the primary care recovery plan.

Neil O'Brien: The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2019 to 2024 commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector and in September 2022, we announced a one-off £100 million investment. On the 9 May, as part of the ‘Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care’ (Primary Care Recovery Plan), a further investment of up to £645 million over two years was announced to expand services offered by community pharmacy.NHS England (formerly Health Education England) conduct an annual survey of the community pharmacy workforce to inform future service planning and investment decisions. NHS England are currently analysing data gathered from the 2022 survey and the results will be published in due course.In 2021, there were 27,406 pharmacists working in community pharmacy, filling 20,489 full-time equivalent posts. Across all sectors, the number of registered pharmacists in England has increased by 82% since 2010 (from 28,984 to 52,780 (31 March 2023)). That’s nearly 24,000 more pharmacists registered in England than in 2010.The number of pharmacy training places annually is uncapped. In England, each year around 2,500 pharmacists enter training and the net increase in pharmacists practicing across all sectors has increased by around 1,400 per year since 2016.Pharmacists are highly qualified essential members of the healthcare team. From 2026, all pharmacists will qualify with a prescribing qualification. We are also training approximately 3,000 pharmacists to be independent prescribers in each year until 2024. Furthermore, NHS England recently announced new clinical examination skills training for community pharmacists. This will build on community pharmacists’ existing skills and act as a refresher for those not currently delivering these types of service. 10,000 places will be available until March 2024.When commissioning new services, any additional training requirements are considered and NHS England are investing £15.9 million over the next four years to support the expansion of existing frontline pharmacy staff in primary and community care. This is to ensure they have the skills and competence to deliver any future services.The primary care recovery plan included pharmacy technicians, including work to clarify the roles of pharmacy professionals and enable a better use of skill mix. This is alongside work to enable pharmacy technicians to administer and supply medicines under patient group directions. This expansion is underpinned by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confirmation that services delivered by registered pharmacy technicians are exempt from VAT so we will revise NHS service specifications to support delivery by pharmacy technicians, recognising their valuable role in clinical service delivery.

Diabetes: Weaver Vale

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Weaver Vale constituency in each year since 2020.

Helen Whately: The following table shows the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in Weaver Vale constituency in each year since 2020.Year of diagnosisNumber of people diagnosed with diabetes20202802021345 FootnotesA person may have more than one diabetes diagnosis within the National Diabetes Audit. In this case, an algorithm is used to derive the best diagnosis date and diabetes type for each person. This is used in the analysis above.Disclosure control has been applied to all figures, as per the National Diabetes Audit publication – all numbers are rounded to the nearest five, unless the number is one to seven, in which case it is rounded to ‘5’.Locations are represented in the National Diabetes Audit dataset using the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) of the person in the audit year. A direct mapping of these geographies to a specific Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies does not exist, meaning while the figures provided for Weaver Vale are likely close to the true value, they should not be considered exact.

Tourette’s Syndrome: Health Services

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to increase the number of specialist practitioners (a) researching and (b) treating Tourette’s Syndrome.

Helen Whately: The Department has no specific plans to increase the number of specialist practitioners researching and treating Tourette’s Syndrome. The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, who are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and need.

Ophthalmic Services: Integrated Care Boards

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Integrated Care Boards have established (a) two-way communication and (b) image sharing between all optometry and ophthalmology services.

Neil O'Brien: Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning both primary and secondary eye care services. Data is not collected centrally on the number of integrated care boards who have already established IT connectivity between primary and secondary care.NHS England’s transformation programme has been looking at what services could be safely moved out of hospital and into the community, supported by image sharing with secondary care specialists. A current pilot in North Central London has shown the potential for this model to improve the triage of patients into secondary care. NHS England are planning to support a number of other integrated care systems to adopt the eye care referral model, aligned to their own local commissioning arrangements. This will increase the evidence base and support wider adoption.

Ophthalmic Services: Staff

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to increase workforce capacity in NHS ophthalmology services.

Neil O'Brien: The Government recognises there are workforce capacity challenges facing ophthalmology services, which is why we have increased training places in 2022 and further places planned for 2023. This sits alongside action being taken to train existing ophthalmology staff so they are able to work to the top of their clinical license.NHS England’s transformation programme has also been looking at what services could be safely moved out of hospital and into the community, supported by image sharing with secondary care specialists. This would allow for the greater involvement of the primary eye care workforce to help build capacity.

NHS: Training

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to deliver (a) teaching and (b) upskilling sessions to (i) community optometrists and (ii) other non-hospital staff.

Neil O'Brien: All optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners must be registered with their respective regulatory body and undertake continuing professional development to maintain their registration. NHS England provides the continuing education and training grant for eligible optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners undertaking National Health Service sight testing services.Funding is also provided across all the devolved nations for the Directory of Continuing Education and Training platform, managed by the College of Optometrists, which provides training resources to all United Kingdom registered optometrists. Employers are also responsible for ensuring that practice staff have the training and skills required to fulfil their roles.

Hypertension: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many children have high blood pressure.

Neil O'Brien: The information requested is not held centrally.

Autism and Learning Disability: Integrated Care Boards

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Integrated Care Boards have an operational keyworker service for children with learning disabilities and autistic children.

Maria Caulfield: The NHS Long Term Plan committed to ensuring children and young people with a learning disability and autistic children with the most complex needs will have a designated keyworker by 2023/24. The keyworker programme was developed and tested in 13 pilot sites, and at the end of March 2023 the service was operational in 36 integrated care boards.

Pregnancy: Sodium Valproate

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2023 to Question 183124 on Pregnancy: Sodium Valproate, how many sodium valproate victims there have been in England.

Maria Caulfield: The information requested is not collected centrally. Limitations to historical data recording and collation mean that the total number of children diagnosed with congenital malformations or neurodevelopmental disorders following exposure to sodium valproate in utero in England or across the United Kingdom since its authorisation is very difficult to estimate.

NHS: Staff

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve NHS workforce capacity to meet (a) current demand and (b) future patient need.

Will Quince: We continue to grow the National Health Service workforce. As of February 2023, there were over 5,300 (4.2%) more doctors and almost 12,300 (3.9%) more nurses than the same time last year. We are on track to deliver 50,000 more nurses across the NHS by 2024 and have almost 43,000 more nurses in February 2023 compared with September 2019.The Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase, taking the total number of medical school places in England to 7,500 each year.In addition, the Government temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study standards of training medicine, subject to their grades. As a result of this change, the intakes for 2020/21 and 2021/22 were 8,405 and 8,460 respectively, significantly above the planned cap of 7,500.To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.

Westmorland General Hospital: Radiotherapy

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of providing a radiotherapy unit at Westmorland General Hospital.

Helen Whately: No assessment has been made. NHS England is the accountable commissioner for radiotherapy services.

Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Staff

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the staff working on the operation of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme are (a) full time and (b) part time employees; what is the number of full time equivalents of the part time employees; and what is the average time taken to process each Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme application.

Maria Caulfield: There are currently 72 full-time employees and 27 part-time employees in NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) working on the operation of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, with the overall full-time equivalents of part-time employees being 18.2. These figures do not include current vacancies.From 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2023, the average number of days for a claim to conclude is 215 calendar days. However, processing times for claims vary significantly depending on the individual circumstances of the claim and in particular on the length of time it takes for healthcare providers to send the claimant’s medical records to NHSBSA. To reduce the length of time it takes to process cases, Subject Access Requests have been introduced where there is no engagement from a healthcare provider within 28 days.

Endometriosis: Health Services

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to reduce waiting times for (a) GP and (b) hospital appointment waiting times for women with endometriosis.

Maria Caulfield: Patients with symptoms of endometriosis will be prioritised based on clinical need. The National Health Service led Provider Collaborative has identified endometriosis as a priority area and recently established a group to develop further initiatives to reduce waiting times for endometriosis patients.The Government published its Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care on 9 May. This aims to reduce the number of people struggling to contact their general practice, and make sure that arrangements are made for patients’ care the first time they contact their General Practitioner (GP). It will achieve this by moving towards a new Modern General Practice Access model, building capacity to deliver more appointments, and cutting bureaucracy for GPs. This will help ensure that patients who need an appointment with their GP practice, including women with endometriosis, can get one within two weeks.To support elective recovery, including for hospital appointments and gynaecology and endometriosis related surgery, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This funding is in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available to systems last year to help drive up and protect elective activity.  As part of the Autumn Statement 2022, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion for 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the NHS in England, enabling rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance towards pre-pandemic levels.Taken together, this funding could deliver the equivalent of nine million more checks, scans and procedures and will mean the NHS in England can aim to deliver around 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than it was before the pandemic.

Infant Mortality: Research

Dr Neil Hudson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to support research into the causes of baby loss.

Maria Caulfield: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom.The NIHR funds a range of research in maternal and neonatal health focussing on the safety of maternity and neonatal services, and the national maternity ambition to halve maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths and brain injury by 2025. Since 2011, NIHR Research Programmes have invested £21.5 million on 27 awards conducting research into miscarriage and stillbirth. Additionally, the NIHR Policy Research Programme funds a Policy Research Unit dedicated to Maternal & Neonatal Health & Care research which is based at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, and led by Professor Jenny Kurinczuk.

Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Mims Davies: The Departmental Security Unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries. It is a long standing convention under successive administrations that Ministers may pay to retain red boxes as a memento of their time in their role, as long as the security features are removed.No ministerial boxes have been reported lost or missing to the Department’s Security Unit since 2018. One ministerial box has been purchased and the security feature was removed.

Social Security Benefits

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that welfare support is available to the most vulnerable people.

Guy Opperman: The government is committed to supporting vulnerable customers. This year we will spend around £79bn on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions around 3% of GDP. We are also committed to ensuring those who are entitled to benefit take it up. For this reason an extra £22 million investment was announced in March to extend free and impartial support through Help to Claim, delivered by Citizens Advice, to help people claim Universal Credit, and we are currently undertaking a campaign to increase the take-up of Pension Credit. The department’s key obligation is to ensure that customers receive the correct benefit entitlement at the right time. We consider a customer’s particular circumstances to provide the right service or ensure appropriate support and can help direct our customers to the most appropriate body to meet their needs. The department has appointed more than 30 Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs) across Great Britain. Their role is to reach across local communities to underpin our relationships with other organisations that provide support to our customers.

Universal Credit: Young People

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183251 on Universal Credit: Young People, for what reason people under 25 who live independently are paid a lower rate of Universal Credit than those aged 25 years and over.

Guy Opperman: The rate of Universal Credit reflects the fact that many claimants are more likely to live in someone else’s household, have lower living costs and typically receive lower wages. It is acknowledged that some claimants under 25 do live independently, which is why Universal Credit includes separate elements to provide support to claimants for these additional costs. These additional amounts are provided in a similar way to all claimants.

Universal Credit: Carers

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April to Question 175632, on Universal Credit: Carers, for what reasons he has no plans to publish his high-level Equalities Impact Assessment for additional conditionality for lead carers of young children; and if he will make a statement.

Guy Opperman: In line with the practice of successive administrations, the Government does not routinely publish equality impact assessments.

Occupational Health

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraphs 3.37 and 3.38 of the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, when he plans to publish the consultations on occupational health; and (b) when he plans that the pilot for a subsidy for small businesses to access occupational health services will go live.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, whether he plans to publish an implementation plan for the announcements on occupational health.

Tom Pursglove: Access to occupational health (OH) services can play an important role in supporting disabled people, and people with health conditions, to remain in, and thrive in, work. The Government is working with employers and the commercial OH market to increase access to good quality, cost-effective OH services. This package of activity as set out in the ‘Health is Everyone’s Business’ (HiEB) consultation response supports the Government’s ambition to reduce economic inactivity due to long-term sickness. In HiEB, the Government committed to testing a financial incentive (subsidy) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the self-employed to understand whether the scheme can help to increase access for these groups. It was announced in the Spring Budget that this test will be expanded. User-centred design is underway with some small-scale testing of the service planned in 2023. Details of the scheme will be shared ahead of launch activity, including eligibility criteria, subsidy level and location for initial testing.The Government will consult on ways to boost UK occupational health coverage and will also launch a separate consultation on options for incentivising greater take-up of occupational health provision through the tax system. Details on the publication of these consultations will be available in due course.

Universal Credit

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what additional support he has introduced to assist claimants moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.

Guy Opperman: Support arrangements are in place in Northern Ireland, administered by the Department for Communities.

Universal Credit

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on the managed migration of legacy benefit claims to Universal Credit of the recommendations of Advice NI's publication entitled the move to Universal Credit: get ready, published on 25 April 2023.

Guy Opperman: The Administration of Universal Credit in Northern Ireland is devolved to the Department for Communities. DWP regularly engages with a broad range of external stakeholders and is committed to ensuring the manged migration of legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit in Great Britain provides a smooth and safe transition.

Period Poverty

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to help ensure the accessibility of sanitary products for people in poverty.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to tackle hygiene poverty for welfare claimants.

Mims Davies: In 2023/24, the Government will spend around £289 billion through the welfare system in the UK. Overall, the government is providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living and has taken a number of steps to ensure that necessities like period products are available and affordable for all who need them. Since 2020 the Department for Education has run a fully funded scheme which makes free period products available for all state-funded primary and secondary schools and college. The scheme gives girls and women easy access to period products at school or college, breaking down stigma and ensuring that no young person’s education is disrupted by their period. In addition, period products are essential, which is why a zero rate of VAT applies. This is part of the Government's wider strategy to make period products affordable and available for all women.

Department for Education

Sign Language: Education

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to ensure that parents of deaf children have access to British Sign Language classes.

Claire Coutinho: The department understands the great importance of British Sign Language (BSL) for bridging barriers to communication between hearing and deaf people. We also appreciate the vital need for families with deaf children to be able to access BSL courses, as early access to language is essential to help children learn and thrive.Funding is available through the adult education budget (AEB) for qualifications in or focussing on BSL, up to and including Level 2. These qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL. It will depend on an individual’s circumstances as to whether they are entitled to free provision or expected to meet part of the cost (through co-funding).About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas. Where community learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission.For some BSL courses, Advanced Learner Loans (ALLs) are available, and parents can find more information about which qualifications are eligible on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/Search. More general information about the provision of ALLs is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan/.For parents learning BSL on an AEB funded course, there is also additional support available. The AEB provides funding to colleges and providers to help adult learners overcome barriers preventing them from accessing learning. Providers have discretion to help learners meet costs such as transport, accommodation, books, equipment, and childcare. Learning support funding also helps colleges and training providers to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and the costs of reasonable adjustments, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

King Edward VII School

Olivia Blake: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to pause the academisation process for King Edward VII School, Sheffield in the context of her Department and Ofsted reviewing the use of limiting judgments.

Nick Gibb: As with any school that receives an overall judgement of inadequate, King Edward VII School will become an academy. The school will be transferred to a trust with a strong track record of ensuring pupils receive the highest standard of education.

Department for Education: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to her Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Nick Gibb: There is no record of any ministerial red boxes from the Department having been either reported missing or lost, or having had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former Ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.The Department keeps a record of all its current ministerial red boxes, and they are all accounted for within the Department and are owned wholly by the Department. All Departmental property is recorded and registered in the appropriate manner and accounted for by the relevant accounting officer.It is a long standing convention under successive administrations that Ministers may pay to retain red boxes as a memento of their time in their role, as long as the security features are removed, but the Department has no record of this happening from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Curriculum and Teaching Methods

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the national curriculum includes (a) sustainable development and (b) project-based learning to encourage practical experience.

Nick Gibb: The Department reformed the National Curriculum to set world class standards across all subjects.The National Curriculum focuses on the key knowledge that schools should teach. Within this broad statutory framework, schools have considerable flexibility to organise the content and delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of the majority of their pupils.In April 2022, the Department published ‘Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems’. The strategy sets out new initiatives, including extra support, for teaching nature and climate change, the introduction of a natural history GCSE, a National Education Nature Park, Climate Action Award, and support for head teachers to take a whole school approach to climate change.The National Education Nature Park will bring together all the land from across the education sector into a vast virtual nature park. It will enable pupils to get involved in taking practical action to improve biodiversity and see over time how the virtual park changes. The initiative will provide many educational opportunities for pupils to take part in biodiversity monitoring, mapping, and data analysis, developing excellent knowledge for the future, underpinned by a strong foundation in mathematics.The Department is drafting subject content for the proposed natural history GCSE and aims to consult publicly on this in the coming months.Topics related to climate change and the environment are already included within the citizenship, science, and geography National Curriculum programmes of study.The Department has no plans to promote project based learning in schools. The Department is committed to evidence based teaching and has recently re-endowed the Education Endowment Foundation with £137 million to research and fund innovative approaches to improve teaching in schools, nurseries, and colleges. Their approaches are aimed at improving educational outcomes, especially for disadvantaged pupils. This supports teachers to make evidence led decisions and choose interventions that they know are effective and appropriate for their pupils. Schools can also refer to the Oak National Academy and the network of subject hubs for support with teaching an evidence based curriculum.In the Schools White Paper, published in 2022, the Department committed not to make any changes to the National Curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament.

Primary Education: Reading

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department had taken steps to increase the difficulty of the Year 6 National Reading Tests on 10 May 2023; and what changes had been made to the previous years' tests.

Nick Gibb: The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is an executive agency of the Department. STA is responsible for the development and delivery of National Curriculum tests and assessments.STA works independently on the test materials, which remain confidential until all pupils have taken the test. This may be up to five school days after the scheduled date of the test, as schools are permitted to vary the timetable in some circumstances.Ministers do not have any influence on test content or challenge. In constructing the tests, STA follows the criteria set out in the National Curriculum test frameworks, which are available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-test-frameworks.There has been no change to the specification for the content, structure, format, or difficulty of the National Curriculum tests for 2023.

Secondary Education

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps the Government has taken to (a) reduce class sizes in state funded secondary schools (b), ensure that teachers in state funded secondary schools have manageable workloads and (c) increase the level of teacher recruitment.

Nick Gibb: It is up to schools to decide on class sizes that are consistent with raising attainment and helping pupils to achieve their potential. The exception to this is in infant classrooms, where there is a statutory limit of 30 pupils in each class, with some legal exemptions.The Education Endowment Foundation found that the effect of reducing class sizes on educational attainment is low, compared to the high cost of doing so. Internationally, John Hattie’s work ranks reducing class sizes at 186 out of 250 influences on pupil achievement.Despite an increase of nearly 850,000 pupils in state funded primary and secondary schools since 2010, average class sizes remain low. In secondary schools, the average is 22.3 pupils. Further information regarding average class sizes is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 (full time equivalent) working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department wants to continue to attract, retain and develop highly skilled teachers to inspire the next generation.The Department has set out a range of measures to make teaching an increasingly attractive profession, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing for those starting teacher training in the 2023/24 academic year.In addition, through the Levelling Up Premium, specialist teachers in the first 5 years of their career will be able to receive up to £3,000 tax free each year from 2022/23 to 2024/25, if they work in a disadvantaged school.The Department has made good progress towards raising starting salaries to £30,000, with all new teachers to earn at least £28,000 from September 2023, which is an uplift of 8.9%, alongside a 5% pay award for more experienced teachers and leaders.Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply and quality, and the Department is taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession. The Department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, working with the profession to understand and address longstanding issues around marking, planning and data management.The Department’s School workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside head teachers, is a helpful resource for schools to review and reduce workload. Working closely with schools and Trusts, the Department has added new resources to the toolkit to ensure it remains relevant. Further details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.The Department encourages schools to sign up to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter to build a shared commitment to promoting staff wellbeing. The charter sets out commitments from the Government, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff, including an explicit commitment to continue to support schools to drive down unnecessary workload.

Students: Loans

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing interest on student loans.

Robert Halfon: I refer the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn to the answer given on 4 May 2023 to Question 182652.

Overseas Students: India

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the contribution to GDP of international students from India.

Robert Halfon: India is one of the five priority countries in the government’s International Education Strategy. We are proud to have hosted 126,535 Indian students in the UK in the 2020/21 academic year.This reflects the commitment we made in the International Education Strategy to host at least 600,000 international students per year. We want to continue to attract the brightest students from all over the world, which delivers growth at home and is good for our universities.The department does not break down the value of education exports by country, although it is clear that international students make a significant economic and cultural contribution to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector.Statistics published by the department show that, in 2020, total revenue from education-related exports and transnational education activity was £25.6 billion. Total revenue from HE was £19.5 billion. This data can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/uk-revenue-from-education-related-exports-and-transnational-education-activity/2020.

Home Office

Wagner Group

Bob Seely: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to classify the Wagner group as a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Tom Tugendhat: Whilst the Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not under consideration for proscription.The Government remains concerned about Russia's use of private military companies such as the Wagner Group. We take the provision of mercenaries and other military support to parties in conflicts such as Libya, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere very seriously. We continue to work closely with our international partners to counter Russian malign activity and respond to actions that undermine the rules based international system.Our package of sanctions in support of Ukraine targets those aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This includes the Wagner Group and on 24 March 2022 the UK designated Wagner Group under our autonomous sanctions regime.

Fraud

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183671 on Fraud, where on the Action Fraud website the requested information is available; and how many incidents were reported to Action Fraud by (a) individuals and (b) organisations where fraud was attempted but no losses occurred in the 12 months to 31 March 2023.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183671 on Fraud, whether the data published on the Action Fraud website includes attempted fraud; and whether the statement in the data section of the Action Fraud website that only fraud offences amounting to a crime under the Home Office Crime Recording rules are included in the data is accurate.

Tom Tugendhat: The latest fraud and cyber crime statistics are published at: Fraud and cyber crime statistics | Action Fraud. In addition, Action Fraud’s Interactive Dashboard allows users to quickly identify the most commonly reported fraud and cyber crimes, with various filters in place. This is available at: NFIB Dashboard (Public) (arcgis.com) We will consider how to improve the public data as we make improvements to the overall service as part of the upgrade which will be complete by 2024.The volumes of total fraud victims reported to Action Fraud for the period April 2022 - March 2023 has been copied below. However, a breakdown by losses incurred is not available at present.04/2022 - 03/2023Victim TypeReport Volume*Individual99,416Organisation12,578Unknown710  Total 112,704  *Fraud only (excludes cyber-crime)The data published on the Action Fraud as set out above do not include attempted frauds, which Action Fraud categorises as ‘information reports’.The statement on the ‘About the data’ page on the NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard, which says that ‘only fraud and cyber crime offences amounting to a crime under the Home Office Crime Recording rules are included in the data’ is accurate.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects sufficient appropriate accommodation to be available to enable the relocation to the UK of all people eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy who are in Government-funded temporary accommodation in third countries.

Robert Jenrick: Since April 2021, we have relocated approximately 12,200 Afghans to the UK under ARAP. The last quarterly published figures show 8,565 relocated Afghans as part of ARAP and the Afghan Citizen Relocation Scheme (ACRS) have moved into a home, and a further 590 had been matched to a home and are waiting to move in. That does not include families who have made their own accommodation arrangements. The next publication of figures is due later this month.It is vital that those arriving have somewhere suitable to stay once they are in the UK. We continue to work at pace with Local Authorities and other partners to source suitable accommodation, in order to be able to welcome more Afghans. The security of housing will mean long-term consistency of public services, including schooling, and employment.

Animal Experiments: Licensing

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to increase the transparency of licensing applications for the performing of scientific procedures on living animals.

Tom Tugendhat: The Government publishes extensive information about the use of animals in science in Great Britain, including: guidance on the operation of ASPA (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-on-the-operation-of-the-animals-scientific-procedures-act-1986); and national annual statistics on the use of animals in scientific procedures (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-statistics).For each project licence granted under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (ASPA) 1986 a Non-Technical Summary is published, available here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#non-technical-summaries.

Animal Experiments

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on whether animal testing has taken place in the UK since 2019.

Tom Tugendhat: Information on animal testing regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 that has taken place in the UK since 2019 can be found in the annual published statistics here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals.

UK Border Force: Recruitment

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Border Force personnel have been recruited since April 2022.

Robert Jenrick: Staffing and financial figures for Border Force from 2021 to 2022 can be found at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)Staffing and financial figures for 2022 – 2023 have not yet been published.

UK Border Force: Staff

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the increase in the FTE establishment of Border Force has been since 2021.

Robert Jenrick: Staffing and financial figures for Border Force from 2021 to 2022 can be found at: Home Office annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Refugees: Afghanistan

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) local authorities participating in the Afghan resettlement scheme and (b) households accepted for resettlement support through the Find Your Own Accommodation scheme, broken down by local authority.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding his Department has allocated in total for local authorities to support Afghan refugees into private rented accommodation through the Local Authority Tariff and Housing Costs Fund; and how much funding has been allocated to each local authority which has agreed to assist refugees through the Find Your Own Accommodation scheme.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's factsheet on offers of settled accommodation for Afghan refugees in bridging hotels, published on 24 April 2023, what recent guidance she has issued to local authorities to assist with helping Afghan refugees to secure private rented accommodation through the Find Your Own Accommodation scheme.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's factsheet on Afghan refugee resettlement moves from bridging hotel accommodation, published on 24 April 2023, how her Department decides which households will receive a direct offer of settled accommodation.

Robert Jenrick: All eligible Afghan citizens who come to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) have valid immigration status, which means that they have the right to work, the right to rent, access to education and healthcare and can apply for public funds.The Find Your Own (FYO) accommodation pathway has been established and empowers Afghan families to source their own accommodation, rather than the Home Office. Council support staff in hotels will work closely with households to help them navigate the pathway.The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) own the FYO accommodation policy. Guidance has been made available to local authorities on the FYO accommodation pathway and how to support those on Afghan Resettlement Schemes looking to move into the private rented sector. Local authorities have also been provided with resources which can be distributed to Afghan households on the FYO accommodation pathway. This includes information on the support available, the process, advice on guarantors and how to search for a home. Local authorities can access all available resources on Knowledge Hub.Whilst the Home Office are unable to provide the requested breakdown of the numbers participating in the FYO accommodation scheme, Home Office officials continue to work at pace, alongside c.350 local authorities across the UK, to meet the demand for housing.The latest Immigration System Statistics, year ending December 2022, published on 23 February, show that over 9,000 people have now been supported into settled accommodation (This breaks down as c.8,500 moved into homes with an additional c.500 matched but not yet moved).In December, DLUHC announced the £500 million Local Authority Housing Fund for English councils to obtain housing for those fleeing conflicts (including Ukrainians and Afghans). It is expected to deliver up to 500 homes for Afghan households including larger, complex families. As announced on 28 March this fund is being expanded by £250m with the majority of the additional funding used to provide further housing for Afghans currently in bridging accommodation, and the rest used to ease existing homelessness pressures.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to publish guidance on wider groups of Afghans eligible for resettlement under the Afghan Citizen’s Resettlement Scheme.

Robert Jenrick: As of 31 December 2022, 24,500 people have been brought to safety from Afghanistan and the neighbouring region. This figure includes over 7,600 individuals granted settled status under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Eligible people are prioritised and referred for resettlement under the ACRS through one of three referral pathways. This includes individuals evacuated or called forward for evacuation under Pathway 1, vulnerable refugees referred by UNHCR under Pathway 2, and British Council and Gardaworld contractors and Chevening alumni referred under the first stage of Pathway 3. In the second stage of Pathway 3, our commitment to work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans at risk still stands. We are not able to open for referrals at this present time, but further information will be published in due course. Our immediate focus is ensuring the resettlement of those eligible in the first stage of Pathway 3, which includes individuals who directly supported the UK and international community’s efforts in Afghanistan We recognise there are many vulnerable individuals who remain in Afghanistan and the region. However, the capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited and difficult decisions about who will be prioritised have to be made.

Asylum: Children

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that children who are asylum seekers remain in areas local to their schools.

Robert Jenrick: Guidance can be found here: Asylum accommodation requests: caseworker guidanc https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-accommodation-requests-policye - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The pressures on the asylum estate means accommodation must be on a ‘no choice basis’. However, children who are asylum seekers and in their final school or college year leading up to their GCSE, Scottish Highers, AS or A-level exams may remain accommodated in that particular area to allow them to complete exams, provided that they have been enrolled at that school for a significant part of the previous school year.

Road Traffic Offences: Fixed Penalties

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of how many Fixed Penalty Notices each police service has issued for contraventions on 20mph speed limits in each of the last five years.

Chris Philp: The Home Office collects and publishes information on fixed penalty notices issued and other outcomes for motoring offences, including speed limit offences, for each police force in England and Wales.This information is published as part of the Home Office’s annual 'Other PACE Powers' bulletin and can be found in table FPN_03 of the data tables.More granular information relating to the speed limit contravened is not centrally collected by the Home Office.

Offensive Weapons

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May to Question 183038,on Offensive Weapons, if she will publish the management information maintained by the National Crime Agency for the (a) number and (b) type of firearms seized by (i) police forces and (ii) the Agency in the last four years for which figures are available.

Chris Philp: Information provided by the National Crime Agency for seizures of firearms in the last four years is as follows:2019/20 - 2462020/21 - 4642021/22 - 1452022/23 - 133NCA is limited in its ability to provide a more comprehensive picture of the numbers and type of firearms seized by police forces and the NCA, as at present there is no single system or agency with complete oversight of national firearms seizure related to crime.The current implementation by police forces and the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) of the Agency and Partner Management Information System (APMIS), will improve the recording of the entire law enforcement system’s activity against Serious and Organised Crime, including data on firearms seized.

Home Office: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to her Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Chris Philp: No boxes were reported missing or lost. One box had its security features removed between 1st May 2018 and 30th April 2023.It is a long-standing convention under successive administrations that Ministers may pay to retain red boxes as a memento of their time in their role, as long as the security features are removed.

Home Office: Artificial Intelligence

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many members of the public are subjected to automated decision making in the Home Office.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office does not record this information.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Waste Disposal: Crime

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to tackle waste crime in (a) Leicestershire, (b) Staffordshire and (c) Warwickshire.

Rebecca Pow: The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. We are also providing grants to councils across the country to help them purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. Recipients include Tamworth Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. In Leicestershire, the Environment Agency has recently stopped three illegal waste sites, two in relation to burning and one in relation to the storage of liquids. All sites were visited by Environment Agency staff and provided with advice and guidance detailing the relevant legislation, their obligations, how to return to compliance and the consequences of not doing so. The Environment Agency also has ongoing investigations into organised crime groups and are progressing a major case through the court system which had operations within Leicestershire. In Warwickshire, the Environment Agency currently has two active investigations in targeting priority offenders. In Staffordshire there two ongoing investigations relating to suspected serious environmental offending. These investigations are being undertaken with partner organisations such as the Police, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and other public bodies. Between April 2022 to March 2023 the Environment Agency closed 10 high risk illegal waste sites across Staffordshire and Warwickshire. Additionally, the Environment Agency is a member of the newly formed Staffordshire Organised Crime Group. The group aims to target and stop organised crime in the area, working with partner organisations including the police, HMRC, HM Prison and Probation Service, local authorities and immigration services.

Food: Prices

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with major supermarkets on potential reductions to the retail price of food following falls in wholesale prices.

Mark Spencer: Defra meets regularly with food retailers to discuss a range of issues, including the impact of food inflation. Through that engagement we continue to explore the range of measures supermarkets and producers can take to ensure the availability of affordable food. The Prime Minister held the UK Farm to Form Summit at 10 Downing Street on 16 May, which focussed on how Government and industry can work together across a number of issues affecting the sector.

Poultry: Animal Housing

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of undercover investigation footage from Carr Farm in East Yorkshire published by the Daily Mail newspaper on 14 April 2023.

Mark Spencer: All livestock are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation: the Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes it an offence either to cause any captive animal unnecessary suffering or to fail to provide for the welfare needs of the animal; and The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 set down detailed requirements on how farmed livestock should be kept. Breaches of animal welfare legislation are taken very seriously and every allegation that is reported to us is investigated. Appropriate action is taken where welfare regulations are breached. It is imperative that any suspicion of animal cruelty is alerted to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in the first instance, so that timely investigations can take place and the welfare of animals can be safeguarded.

Poultry: Animal Housing

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2023 to Question 173051, what steps her Department have taken to examine the use of cages for laying hens.

Mark Spencer: We are providing a range of financial incentives for improving animal health and welfare to farmers through the new Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. These incentives focus on published health and welfare priorities for each sector and will include support for farmers wishing to transition away from the use of enriched ‘colony’ cages for laying hens. Specifically, we are exploring options for large infrastructure grants, building on the animal health and welfare grants already available towards the cost of equipment and technology which offer improvements in the health and welfare of livestock.

Agriculture: Animal Housing

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to provide funding to farmers to transition to cage-free farming systems in 2023.

Mark Spencer: We are providing a range of financial incentives for improving animal health and welfare to farmers through the new Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. These incentives focus on published health and welfare priorities for each sector and will include support for farmers wishing to transition away from the use of enriched ‘colony’ cages for laying hens and farrowing crates for pigs. Specifically, we are exploring options for large infrastructure grants, building on the animal health and welfare grants already available towards the cost of equipment and technology which offer improvements in the health and welfare of livestock.

Poultry: Animal Housing

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2023 to Question 179978 on Poultry: Animal Housing, if she will make an estimate of the costs to industry of a ban on the use of cages for laying hens.

Mark Spencer: There are no current plans to estimate the cost to industry of a ban on the use of cages for laying hens.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Mark Spencer: Defra pays holiday pay to employees in recognition of ‘normal remuneration’ during periods of statutory leave, in line with the ruling. This includes voluntary payments such as overtime and on-call.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Jane Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182475 on Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control, if she will make it her policy to change the compensation calculation for farmers in England whose cattle have been culled due to tuberculosis so that each animal is individually valued.

Mark Spencer: Until 2006, compensation for TB affected cattle in England was determined using individual valuations. There was however significant evidence of overcompensation so, following a public consultation in 2004, Defra moved to a table-based valuation system. Almost all cases of TB compensation in England are now determined using table valuations. Table valuations are objective and based on real market data. There are no plans to alter this approach.

Livestock: Antibiotics

Tom Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential impact of introducing a ban on the overuse of antibiotics on healthy farm animals on levels of antimicrobial resistance.

Mark Spencer: Defra is a co-signatory with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of the UK's Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 5 year National Action Plan (2019-2024) and the UK's 20 year Vision to Contain and Control AMR by 2040. These plans both take a One Health, whole of government approach. Defra and DHSC work closely together at all levels, together with other government departments, to deliver this plan. The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals, while safeguarding animal welfare. Since 2014, the UK has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals. Changes to the law on veterinary medicines represent one tool that can be used to help effect reductions in antibiotic prescribing in animals. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 are currently under review, and the feedback from the recently closed public consultation will be analysed and considered. The publicly available consultation documents for the revision of the Veterinary Medicines Legislation set out the rationale for the government’s proposed approach to the use of antibiotics to prevent disease in animals (prophylaxis). In summary, the proposed new legal restrictions on antibiotic prophylaxis prohibit this type [MG1] of use in all but exceptional circumstances to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, protect animal welfare, and allow changes to prescribing practices to be made sustainably. Officials from DHSC, Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to address AMR across the human and animal health sectors. This has included discussion of the proposed changes to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations.

Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the Leader of the House on finding parliamentary time for the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.

Mark Spencer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 17 May 2023 to the hon. Member for Preston, PQ 184295.

Animal Sentience Committee

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government has taken on (a) establishing and (b) maintaining the Animal Sentience Committee since the assent of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022.

Rebecca Pow: Work is underway to prepare for the forthcoming launch of the new Animal Sentience Committee. Michael Seals CBE was appointed on 2nd September 2022 as the first-ever Chair of the Committee and the Member appointments will be announced in due course. We will also bring the provisions of the Animal Sentience Act into effect, in order to formally establish the Animal Sentience Committee.

Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the Leader of the House of Commons on finding Parliamentary time for the remaining stages of the Kept Animals Bill.

Mark Spencer: The Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Leader of the House about our legislative programme and other matters. The Leader of the House will set out parliamentary business, including future Bill stages, in the usual way.

Food: Exports

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the quantity of exported food that has been wasted due to delays in inspections at UK borders in the last 12 months.

Mark Spencer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 11 May 2023 to PQ 183339.

Fisheries: Employment

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to Government policy on visas for employment in the fishing industry on the cost of fish.

Mark Spencer: The Government’s longstanding position has been that foreign nationals need permission to work in UK waters and that transit visas have never been an appropriate visa to use to work in the UK. There has been no change in our position with this regard. The Government recognises there will be adjustment required for the industry to become compliant with the immigration system and has offered a generous visa support package to the sector. We are working closely with the fishing industry and Seafish to monitor labour shortages and their impact on the cost of fish.

Glass: Deposit Return Schemes

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including glass in the Deposit Return Scheme.

Rebecca Pow: UK Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland consulted in 2019 and 2021 on the detail of introducing a DRS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In January 2023 we published the government response to the 2021 consultation, setting out policy decisions and next steps for introducing the scheme (link here). As outlined in the government response, glass bottles will not be captured by DRS in England and Northern Ireland as the respective governments believe the addition of glass will add additional complexity and challenges to delivery of DRS in particular to the hospitality and retail sectors, as well as additional consumer inconvenience. Given concerns raised on managing glass in a DRS, delivery of the scheme will focus on plastic bottles and aluminium/steel cans in England and Northern Ireland. Whilst not in-scope of the DRS in England and Northern Ireland, glass drinks bottles will be covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging scheme in both nations, which will place targets on producers in relation to glass recycling. The proposed recycling target for glass packaging under EPR is 83% by 2030. Producers will also be responsible for the costs of managing glass packaging in household waste and disposed in street bins provided by local authorities.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoner Escorts: Cameras

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to permit the use of body worn cameras in court buildings for Prisoner Escort and Custody Services staff.

Mike Freer: We are grateful to all Prisoner Escort Services (PECS) staff for all the work they undertake, protecting prisoners and the public. The safety of PECS staff is treated with upmost importance. We acknowledge the merits of body worn cameras for PECS staff, and work is on-going to make the necessary legislative change to permit this in courts, not just for PECS staff, but Police Officers also. We continue to engage with SERCO, our PECS provider, as well as the Police, who have been involved throughout the process.

Custody: Mediation

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Our Family Wizard mobile application in facilitating mediation in child custody disputes.

Mike Freer: The Ministry of Justice has not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of the Our Family Wizard mobile application in supporting mediation, but we are aware that it is one of a number of digital applications that may support parents to effectively co-parent their children post-separation. The Government is currently consulting on how we can best support families resolve their disputes outside of court, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/supporting-earlier-resolution-of-private-family-law-arrangements. Specific feedback is being sought on the role that online tools can play in supporting separating parents.

Powers of Entry: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department will begin to record information on the reasons for the granting of warrants to allow energy firms to force entry into people's homes.

Mike Freer: HMCTS has kept a central register of all applications for warrants of entry since 2018. The data sets out how many applications are successful or refused. However, the figures represent all warrants of entry under the Gas and Electricity Acts, so for example, warrants for the purpose of installing a prepayment meter cannot be isolated from the data. HMCTS is reviewing what further improvements we can make to the information we hold and may collect in the future.

Guardianship: Legal Aid Scheme

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that legal aid is available to extended family members who are seeking guardianship of vulnerable children.

Mike Freer: We recently expanded the family legal aid scheme, which will provide an additional £13m per year in general to family legal aid, to support carers making a decision as to whether to become a special guardian. Special Guardianship Orders brought in private family proceedings are now in scope of legal aid so prospective special guardians can receive legal aid for advice and assistance before making an informed decision.

Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take legislative steps to prevent the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

Mike Freer: The Government has announced its intention to legislate against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation when parliamentary time allows and is currently exploring appropriate legislative opportunities to do so.

End-to-End Rape Review

James Daly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan.

Edward Argar: The Government has made strong progress on implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan, published on 18 June 2021, which is focused on improving the system response to rape and ensuring more victims see justice. The most recent six-monthly Progress Report is available here: End to End Rape Review Progress Report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Our progress on implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan includes:We are more than quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/5, up from £41m in 2009/10.As of September 2022, we have fully rolled out pre-recorded cross examination (Section 28) for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts across England and Wales. This is being used in over 150 cases per month.In December we launched a new 24/7 support line for victims of rape and sexual abuse, meaning every victim can now access free, confidential emotional support whenever and wherever they need it.The police and Crown Prosecution Service are rolling out a new investigatory model for rape, which focuses on the suspect’s – rather than the victim’s – behaviour, called Operation Soteria. The model is now in operation across nineteen police forces with a national rollout planned to start from June 2023. Overall, we have delivered on the vast majority of actions set out in the plan and continue to make steady and sustained progress towards this Government’s ambition to return volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, and going to court to at least 2016 levels by the end of this parliament. The latest data shows that we are on track to meet each of these ambitions ahead of schedule:In October- December 2022, there were 1,079 total police referrals, more than double the 2019 quarterly average (461) and up by 41% compared to the 2016 quarterly average (766). Over the last quarter, total police referrals went up by 8% (999 to 1,079).In October – December 2022 we recorded 472 CPS charges, nearly double the 2019 quarterly average (244), 12% below the 2016 quarterly average (538). Over the last quarter CPS charges remained stable (slight fall from 473 to 472).In October - December 2022 we recorded 509 Crown Court receipts, more than double the 2019 quarterly average (231), 8% below the ambition of 553 per quarter. Over the last quarter, Crown Court receipts increased by 8% (from 473 to 509).

Bill of Rights Bill

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when Second Reading of the Bill of Rights Bill will take place.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on whether legislative time will be provided for the Bill of Rights Bill in this parliamentary session.

Mike Freer: The Lord Chancellor is currently considering all aspects of his department’s business. Business in the House will be announced in the usual way through Business Statements by the Leader of the House of Commons.

Prisons: Restraint Techniques

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle potential racial disparities in the use of force in prisons.

Damian Hinds: We have improved the recording of incidents, utilising a digital platform, that will collect more information on who we are using force on, including race. The department is incorporating data on Use of Force into its prisons equalities monitoring tool to be released to front-line D&I leads. This tool is for internal operational monitoring and policy development. This will allow D&I leads to directly compare whether there is parity across ethnic groups in Use of Force incidence within prisons. We have made improvements to local use of force governance, increasing the frequency of meetings and ensuring that the right people are members of the committee. Prisons are expected to have a diverse and empowered committee, with laypersons invited to express the views of prisoners. In some prisons, prisoners are invited to form part of the committee. We have provided clear guidance around Use of Force governance though the Good Governance Toolkit. The toolkit supports sites with their assurance, staff development and prisoner rehabilitation. It provides signposting for concerns relating to force and establishes a framework of positive practice and improvement through assurance. The toolkit highlights the input required for the assurance processes, such as the data collation, analysis and presentation at the UoF Committee and to ensure an explain or reform response is made. This was developed in consultation with the HMPPS Race Action Programme and both internal and external stakeholders and is based around the Procedural Justice principles.We launched training package, aimed at local Use of Force co-ordinators to help improve their data literacy, so that they understand the importance of good quality data, how to collate that, and then how to present it in a way that leads to meaningful discussions. This was launched in conjunction with the updated Toolkit to support the governance process. We have been conducting research on Use of Force, attending committee meetings and gathering best practice, including in the data considered at the committee, ways of running the meeting, and its membership. The research included speaking to prisoners and staff who have experienced force. This will be available to use in Autumn 2023. We have established a Use of Force Disproportionality working group, which brings together Diversity and Inclusion, the HMPPS Race Action Programme and Use of Force team, that will collect and share good practice around reducing disproportionality, and develop further guidance on how to take action where necessary. We have put in place a process around the assurance visits that the central team conduct, with standardised measures, including looking at data and disproportionality. They also look at the diversity of the local committee. Once a visit is completed, the report is shared with the prison and depending on the level of concern, follow up visits arranged. When we devised the internal scoring and weighting, we placed a high weighting on identifying disproportionality, and also on the actions taken. If prisons are not doing either of those, it would be reported back, and support given to develop the prisons own processes. If their committee is not meeting the recommendation then the team will suggest ways to do so, such as prisoner representation or external third sector organisations. We also engage at regional level with group safety leads, and equality leads to support them and also take referrals to ensure support is given. We have set up an Expert Advisory Panel with a diverse and expert membership to discuss the issues we are having, and to ensure external input.

Prison Officers: Restraint Techniques

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information (a) his Department and (b) HM Prison Service holds on the ethnicity of prison officers that have completed annex A of a use of force report in each of the last five years.

Damian Hinds: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost

Prisons: Staff

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effectiveness of the roll-out of body-worn cameras to prison staff and (b) impact of such cameras on (i) safety and (ii) security in prisons.

Damian Hinds: The roll-out of body worn video cameras to all prison officers on duty in public sector prisons was completed in March 2023. The roll-out has more than doubled the availability of cameras to staff, enabling every band 3-5 operational member of staff on shift to wear one. We will be assessing the impact of the cameras over the next year.

Prisons: Radicalism

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to introduce restrictions in prisons on people convicted of terrorist offences to help prevent them from exploiting a role in (a) conducting religious services and (b) speaking at communal events to build authority and ideological influence over other offenders.

Damian Hinds: We take a robust approach to managing terrorist risk in prisons and look to constantly improve our approach. We have recently tightened our rules to ensure that prisoners convicted of terrorist offences are not permitted to hold any formal or leading role in religious worship. These changes strengthen our response to terrorist offenders seeking to use prison as a place to spread their extremist ideology.

Prisons: Staff

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the roll-out of body worn cameras for staff on the prison estate.

Damian Hinds: The roll-out of body worn video cameras to all prison officers on duty in public sector prisons was completed in March 2023. The roll-out has more than doubled the availability of cameras to staff, enabling every band 3-5 operational member of staff on shift to wear one. We will be assessing the impact of the cameras over the next year.

Prisons: Staff

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much resource has been allocated to the roll-out of body worn cameras for staff on the prison estate.

Damian Hinds: The resource allocation for the roll-out of body worn video cameras for staff in public sector prisons for the financial year 2022/23 was £362,000. The rollout was completed in this period and resources consisted of:One senior project managerOne commercial managerFive implementation team members£36,000 was also allocated for Vodafone professional services relating to network setup.

Employment Tribunals Service

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunal cases were outstanding in each region as of 1 April in each of the last five years.

Mike Freer: Data is provided by region and is split to show single/ multiple claims in the tables below for the last five years.RegionAs at 31 March 2018As at 31 March 2019TotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsTotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsLondon47,5036,03341,47052,4518,76643,685Midlands43,9372,67441,26343,5973,74339,854North East10,5831,5299,05411,7871,65110,136North West39,6431,54238,10148,5081,89746,611Scotland67,9781,90566,07383,6063,21480,392South East108,3823,395104,987144,0974,977139,120South West15,0181,20913,80915,3061,51213,794Wales3,5938292,7643,7259042,821Total336,63719,116317,521403,07726,664376,413 RegionAs at 31 March 2020As at 31 March 2021TotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsTotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsLondon59,15711,59847,55986,72418,03668,688Midlands51,8994,64247,25758,3325,98152,351North East16,3831,93014,45317,5912,33815,253North West58,4972,40356,09469,7093,13966,570Scotland85,5432,30283,24189,8692,50387,366South East144,0495,907138,142155,0028,008146,994South West20,7492,00118,74824,4592,71221,747Wales4,7439103,8335,2101,2543,956Total441,02031,693409,327506,89643,971462,925 RegionAs at 31 March 2022As at 31 December 2022TotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsTotalSingle claimsMultiple claimsLondon84,90418,50666,39888,06619,09068,976Midlands58,3506,01452,33664,9016,39958,502North East18,0462,64915,39721,8963,60818,288North West79,5022,99876,50482,7442,90379,841Scotland81,1111,82379,28882,3021,70680,596South East138,7107,044131,666112,7757,397105,378South West17,5842,42215,16217,1352,42314,712Wales4,5821,0833,4995,1851,2323,953Total482,78942,539440,250475,00444,758430,246Data is a subset of the published statistics.Statistical information in relation to the Employment Tribunal can be found in our published stats www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.We currently only have data published up to December 2022.Last year, we invested nearly £3 million extra to increase the number of days Employment Tribunals can operate, so around 1,700 more cases could be heard by the end of March 2023. This is in addition to hiring 114 more judges and investing in remote hearings to ensure cases can get through the system more quickly.

Parole

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Victims and Prisoners Bill on the parole system.

Edward Argar: The parole reforms in the Victims and Prisoners Bill will enshrine public protection as the only factor in release decisions for parole-eligible prisoners and introduce greater ministerial scrutiny to the release of the most serious offenders. These reforms will help to restore public confidence in the parole system and ensure dangerous offenders are not released onto our streets. The Government’s Impact Assessment of these reforms has been published here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0286/VictimsandPrisonersBillParoleImpact_Assessment_March23.pdf .

Sentencing

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to require prisoners to attend their sentencing hearing.

Edward Argar: The Government fully appreciates that an offender’s refusal to attend their sentencing hearing can cause anger and upset for victims and their families. We are looking carefully at changing the law so that offenders face up to their actions and victims can see justice being served.

Rape: Trials

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the submission of pre-recorded evidence on accusers in rape case trials.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the submission of pre-recorded evidence in rape trials on the (a) number of such cases brought to court and (b) number of convictions in such cases.

Edward Argar: On 3 April 2023, the government published a process evaluation of the implementation of pre-recorded cross-examination (section 28) for intimidated witnesses, including survivors of rape and modern slavery (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/process-evaluation-of-section-28-evaluating-the-use-of-pre-recorded-cross-examination-for-intimidated-witnesses). The evaluation explored witness and practitioner views and experiences of section 28 to understand whether the provision was working as intended. The evaluation found that witnesses who used section 28 noted an improved experience compared to giving evidence live at trial. While we are unable to determine how many rape cases progressed specifically due to the section 28 provision as opposed to other factors, we know that 433 witnesses gave evidence via section 28 in adult rape cases between January 2021 and December 2022. The section 28 process evaluation did not analyse conviction and acquittal rates. However, MoJ are currently scoping an impact analysis of section 28 which is expected to cover conviction rates.

End-to-End Rape Review

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made in implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan published in June 2021.

Edward Argar: The Government has made strong progress on implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan, published on 18 June 2021, which is focused on improving the system response to rape and ensuring more victims see justice. The most recent six-monthly Progress Report is available here: End to End Rape Review Progress Report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Our progress on implementing the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan includes:We are more than quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/5, up from £41m in 2009/10.As of September 2022, we have fully rolled out pre-recorded cross examination (Section 28) for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts across England and Wales. This is being used in over 150 cases per month.In December we launched a new 24/7 support line for victims of rape and sexual abuse, meaning every victim can now access free, confidential emotional support whenever and wherever they need it.The police and Crown Prosecution Service are rolling out a new investigatory model for rape, which focuses on the suspect’s – rather than the victim’s – behaviour, called Operation Soteria. The model is now in operation across nineteen police forces with a national rollout planned to start from June 2023. Overall, we have delivered on the vast majority of actions set out in the plan and continue to make steady and sustained progress towards this Government’s ambition to return volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, and going to court to at least 2016 levels before the end of this parliament. The latest data shows that we are on track to meet each of these ambitions ahead of schedule:In October- December 2022, there were 1,079 total police referrals, more than double the 2019 quarterly average (461) and up by 41% compared to the 2016 quarterly average (766). Over the last quarter, total police referrals went up by 8% (999 to 1,079).In October – December 2022 we recorded 472 CPS charges, nearly double the 2019 quarterly average (244),12% below the 2016 quarterly average (538). Over the last quarter CPS charges remained stable (473 to 472).In October - December 2022 we recorded 509 Crown Court receipts, more than double the 2019 quarterly average (231),8% below the ambition of 553 per quarter. Over the last quarter, Crown Court receipts increased by 8% (from 473 to 509).

Ministry of Justice: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Mike Freer: The following table includes the reported number of missing or lost ministerial red boxes and the number of red boxes which have had their security features removed between 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023: 1 May 2018-30 Apr 23Reported missing or lost0Had security features removed for personal use0

Department for Transport

Great British Railways: Consultants

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Great British Railways transition team has spent on consultants in each month since October 2022.

Huw Merriman: Total spend on Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT)’s consultancy support over the period from 18 September 2022 to 29 April 2023 was £20 million. Data on monthly cost for consultants supporting the GBRTT is not available in the format requested as GBRTT hold data in accounting periods rather than calendar months. GBRTT is a temporary organisation set up by DfT to design Great British Railways, the new guiding mind for the railways. Industry specialists have been sourced through a mix of secondments and fixed-term appointments, however consultants are required to provide additional technical expertise on specific tasks.

Motorways: Speed Limits

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the national speed limit on motorways from 70mph to 80mph on economic growth.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department has not undertaken any recent assessment on increasing the national speed limit from 70mph to 80mph.

Department for Transport: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: In response to this judgement, the Department for Transport negotiated and implemented a policy for the core department and executive agencies effective 01 August 2019 to meet the statutory obligations placed on employers.

Bypasses: Middlewich

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to facilitate the process for consideration of the Full Business Case for the Middlewich Eastern Bypass in the Congleton constituency.

Mr Richard Holden: Department for Transport officials are liaising with Cheshire East Council in relation to the Full Business Case for the Middlewich Bypass which they to expect to receive in September.

Department for Transport: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Jesse Norman: None.

Docklands Light Railways: Thamesmead

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential for creation of new jobs by extending the DLR from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Richard Holden: I refer the Member to the answer I gave to UIN 184758.

Treasury

Treasury: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Gareth Davies: The following table includes the reported number of missing or lost ministerial red boxes and the number of red boxes which have had their security features removed from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023:   1 May 2018-30 Apr 23Reported missing or lost0Had security features removed for personal use0

Inflation

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is his Department's most recent estimate of the expected level of inflation at the end of 2023.

Andrew Griffith: The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) are the government’s official forecaster. The OBR published its most recent economic and fiscal forecasts in March 2023, when they expected CPI inflation to fall to 2.9% at the end of the year, dipping below the 2% target in 2024, before moving sustainably to target by the end of the forecast.

Private Life: Fraud

Jane Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help banks and payment service providers to easily (a) identify and (b) prevent romance scams.

Andrew Griffith: The Government takes the issue of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, of which romance fraud is one form, very seriously, and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime. Working alongside the regulators, law enforcement, and industry, the Government continues to support numerous fraud-prevention initiatives, including the Payments Systems Regulator’s work to enhance information sharing between payment providers.Information sharing between firms plays a key role in identifying scammers and preventing scams. As noted in the Home Office’s recent Fraud Strategy, the Government, regulators and industry are working together to identify opportunities for greater information sharing to better tackle fraud ‘up stream’. The PSR has set up an industry working group, including Pay.UK and UK Finance, to agree what data could be shared. In order to prevent APP fraud, HM Treasury is investigating amending legislation to enable payment service providers such as banks to delay payments beyond the existing legislative timescales in limited, high-risk fraud scenarios. This will allow enhanced customer engagement to take place. This could enable firms to take more of a ‘risk-based’ approach to payments processing.

Mortgages: Interest Rates

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to take steps to support mortgage payers in the event of further rises in interest rates.

Andrew Griffith: The Government does not set mortgage or interest rates: the pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders, whilst the Base Rate - which is one factor that lenders use to set mortgage rates - is set by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England, which is independent of Government. Where mortgage holders do fall into financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances. The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol.

Cash Dispensing: Fees and Charges

Dan Carden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to help ensure that the cost of maintaining the ATM network is not passed onto consumers.

Andrew Griffith: The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups. The government is currently legislating to protect access to cash across the UK as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The Bill establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. With regards to the ATM network, LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. According to LINK data for February 2023, there were 39,500 free-to-use ATMs across the UK. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/

Developing Countries: Debts

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government is taking steps to encourage private lenders to contribute to debt relief efforts for low-income countries facing debt crises.

Andrew Griffith: The UK, alongside the G20 and Paris Club, has been clear that private creditors are expected to participate in debt treatments on terms at least as favourable as bilateral (i.e. country) creditors. More broadly, the UK has led on innovations to enhance the market-based approach to private debt restructuring, for example by developing new model ‘majority voting provisions’ for private syndicated loans. These promote more efficient restructurings and reduce the ability for creditors to hold out.

Credit

Alun Cairns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the potential adequacy of fixed Buy Now Pay Later credit products compared to open credit arrangements.

Alun Cairns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact on consumers of applying the Consumer Credit Act 1974 to buy now pay later products.

Alun Cairns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an a comparative assessment of the Government's reforms of buy now pay later regulation with similar reforms in other fintech centres.

Andrew Griffith: The Government is working to bring currently unregulated fixed-sum Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) agreements into regulation in a proportionate way. This recognises that, when appropriately used, BNPL products are lower-risk than interest bearing credit products and can be a useful tool for consumers to manage their finances. The Government’s approach includes tailoring the application of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 to BNPL agreements, to provide appropriate consumer protections without unduly limiting access to these products. In developing this approach, the Government consulted extensively with consumer groups and industry stakeholders to understand the impact of its proposals on consumers and firms. A further consultation on the draft secondary legislation that will bring BNPL into regulation closed on 11 April. The Government is now carefully considering stakeholder feedback and will publish a consultation response which will set out next steps. The Government will publish an impact assessment ahead of laying any legislation, which will also consider the impacts on consumers of bringing BNPL into regulation. As part of the policy development process, the Government has engaged with regulators in other comparable jurisdictions to understand how they are approaching the regulation of BNPL.

Cryptocurrencies: Electronic Funds Transfer

Alun Cairns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implication for its polices of the potential practice by banks of imposing transfer limits on customers sending funds to crypto exchanges.

Andrew Griffith: The Government remains committed to supporting safe innovation within the cryptoasset sector, and HM Treasury recognises concerns about the impact of decisions taken by banks with respect to consumer payments to crypto businesses. However, these are commercial, risk-based decisions driven by a range of factors, including compliance with financial crime obligations. As such, it would not be appropriate for the Government to intervene at this stage. The Government is encouraging the crypto industry, in the first instance, to engage directly with UK banks, UK Finance and other relevant trade associations. In parallel, HM Treasury is working towards a comprehensive regulatory framework for the cryptoasset sector which may influence decisions taken by UK banks with regards to controls or restrictions on payments.

Inflation

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to help tackle inflation; and what recent assessment he has made of the factors that may hinder achievement of the Government's goals in this area of fiscal policy.

Andrew Griffith: Monetary policy is the responsibility of the independent MPC and the Bank of England. The MPC has the primary objective of returning inflation to the target of 2%, and we have been clear that this government will not change this aim. The government took decisive action to restore economic stability in the autumn, and the public finances have now proved to be more resilient than previously expected. At Spring Budget 2023 the government put forward a plan to deliver on three of the PM’s key priorities: to get debt falling, halve inflation, and grow the economy. There are three key things the government is doing to deliver on the plan to halve inflation. Firstly, remaining steadfast in our support for the independent MPC at the Bank of England, as they take action to return inflation to target. Secondly, making difficult but responsible decisions on tax and spending so we are not adding fuel to the fire. Third, tackling high energy prices by holding down energy bills for households and businesses this year and next, alongside investing in long-term energy security.

Plastics: Taxation

Ruth Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to launch a consultation on mass balance and calculating recycled content within the Plastic Packaging Tax.

Gareth Davies: The government announced it will consult on allowing a mass balance approach for calculating the proportion of recycled content in chemically recycled plastics, for the purposes of the Plastic Packaging Tax. This demonstrates the government’s commitment to developing the tax to ensure it supports the commercialisation of the UK chemical recycling sector, whilst continuing to encourage manufacturers and importers to use more recycled plastic in packaging. The consultation will be published later this year.

Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation: Vacancies

Liam Byrne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of staff posts which are vacant at the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.

Gareth Davies: HM Treasury and the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation have been at the front and centre of an unprecedented financial sanctions response. Russia’s unprovoked and unwarranted attack on a sovereign nation brought war back to Europe. The government has recognised this and strengthened OFSI’s powers to enforce financial sanctions as well as its resources. Information on OFSI staff numbers at end 2022 is available in the OFSI 2022 Annual review available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1116689/OFSI_Annual_Review_2021-22_10.11.22.pdf

Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation: Labour Turnover

Liam Byrne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the staff turnover rate at the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation was in the last 12 months.

Gareth Davies: HM Treasury and OFSI have been at the front and centre of an unprecedented financial sanctions response. Russia’s unprovoked and unwarranted attack on a sovereign nation brought war back to Europe. The government has recognised this and strengthened OFSI’s powers to enforce financial sanctions as well as its resources. Information on OFSI staff numbers at end 2022 is available in the OFSI 2022 Annual review available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1116689/OFSI_Annual_Review_2021-22_10.11.22.pdf

DP World: Taxation

Karl Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to ensure that (a) multinational and (b) domestic top-up taxes set out in the Spring Budget 2023 apply to (a) P&O Ferries Ltd and (ii) other UK subsidiaries of DP World.

Victoria Atkins: The Pillar 2 rules have been globally agreed and will apply to multinational and domestic companies with an annual consolidated revenue of €750 million or more. The UK is legislating Pillar 2 in the Spring Finance Bill, with implementation from accounting periods beginning on or after 31 December 2023. The detailed application of the rules is set out in this legislation and is consistent with the internationally agreed rules.

Business: Newport West

Ruth Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to support businesses in Newport West constituency.

Victoria Atkins: Businesses in Newport West, as well as those across Wales and the UK, stand to gain significantly from the numerous business support measures announced at Spring Budget. In particular, full expensing for investment in qualifying plant and machinery investment, until March 2026, amounts to a £27 billion tax cut for companies. Approximately 220,000 Welsh SMEs could also benefit from the government's plans to simplify the tax system. This is on top of the additional £180 million in Welsh Government funding through the Barnett formula, which can be used to support businesses. The Government is committed to making the UK the best place to do business in the world and Newport West’s businesses stand to benefit from these fiscal steps.

Child Trust Fund: North East

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people who are unable to access their Child Trust Funds in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency and (b) the North East.

Victoria Atkins: Information on Child Trust Funds as of 5th April 2021, are available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics. This includes figures on matured accounts which have been claimed and which have not been claimed.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022 Equivalent statistics up to April 2022 will be released on 22nd June 2023. A geographical breakdown of the data for matured accounts that have not been claimed could only be provided at a disproportionate cost. While some matured accounts have not been claimed yet, no accounts are inaccessible.

Northern Ireland Office

Training for Women Network

Martin Docherty-Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when he last met with the Training for Women Network.

Chris Heaton-Harris: My ministerial team, officials and I regularly meet organisations from the women's sector in Northern Ireland. In recent months, we have met members of the Women's Policy Group, the Women's Aid Federation, and women's organisations working in Derry/Londonderry and Belfast. In regards to the Training Women's Centre specifically, Lord Caine visited the Training Women's Centre early last year, and my officials have met with them at various points over the last year. The Training Women's Centre also attended a roundtable with me at NICVA on 3 May 2023.

Scotland Office

Transport: Scotland

Jerome Mayhew: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the Scottish Government on improving transport connectivity between the mainland of Scotland and the islands.

John Lamont: Connectivity between the Scottish mainland and islands is essential to the livelihoods and well-being of our island communities.The Scotland Office routinely engages with stakeholders on this and other matters impacting our islands. Indeed, my Ministerial colleague, Lord Offord, attended the first Islands Forum last year.I am confident that continued collaboration will help island communities tackle shared challenges and unlock their full potential.

Marriage: Scotland

Mrs Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has had discussions with the First Minister on the legal age of marriage in Scotland.

Mr Alister Jack: I am pleased that the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act recently obtained Royal Assent - and I thank my honourable Friend for her important work in this area.The Scottish Government is aware of the Act’s contents. As a devolved matter, it is for the Scottish Government to decide on the age of marriage.Nonetheless, I would encourage the Scottish Government to follow suit.

Ferries: Rosyth

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will have discussions with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the Scottish Government on the potential merits of reintroducing direct ferry links between Rosyth and mainland Europe.

Mr Alister Jack: The operation of international ferry routes is primarily a commercial matter.Officials in the Department for Transport are in regular contact with Transport Scotland to monitor developments in the maritime market, including the Rosyth ferry proposals.I understand the companies involved remain engaged in feasibility studies to test commercial viability and we look forward to learning their outcome in due course.

Department for Business and Trade

Directors: Disqualification

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2023 to Question 183026 on Companies: Sanctions, what resources her Department plans to make available for the enforcement of director disqualification sanctions.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will introduce a new director disqualification sanctions measure. It will be an offence for a designated person subject to this new measure to form a UK company, or to act as a director or otherwise be involved in the company’s promotion or management.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department of Business and Trade are in ongoing discussions regarding the implementation of these new sanctions, including the enforcement function.

Industry: Electricity

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is planning to introduce by the end of the Parliament to reduce industrial electricity prices.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The government has announced new measures to support Britain’s strategic Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) with high electricity prices. The British Industry Supercharger aims to remove policy costs to reduce the long-term industrial electricity price gap between the UK and competitor countries. Proposals will exempt firms from costs arising from renewable energy obligations and GB Capacity Market costs. It will also offer support with network charges, for which an amendment has been introduced to the Energy Bill. We will consult on the capacity market exemption shortly and intend to bring forward secondary legislation on all three measures within this Parliament.

Retail Trade: Conditions of Employment

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers on working conditions for retail workers.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) are a part of the Retail Sector Council where challenges faced by the retail sector are considered. Employment has been identified as a priority area for the Council.There has been no recent engagement with USDAW specifically on working conditions for retail workers.

Batteries: Recycling

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, steps her Department is taking to increase investment in the domestic battery recycling industry.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Critical Minerals Refresh published in March, sets out our approach to delivering on the Critical Minerals Strategy, and confirms our participation in the Minerals Security Partnership. Working with international partners, this aims to spur investment in supply chains across four pillars, including recycling and reuse, and will support our work to accelerate a circular economy of critical minerals in the UK. The Government is also funding record investment in battery innovation and commercialisation, including in recycling. The £541m Faraday Battery Challenge is supporting projects such as REBLEND, which is developing commercial processes to directly recover valuable cathode active materials (CAM) for reuse in automotive batteries. The project is led by Ecoshred, with University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, Minviro, Iconichem Widnes, Watercycle Technologies, Ecolamp Recycling, and Cornish Lithium.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Charitable Donations

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her Department's policies of trends in the level of donations to charities over the last five years.

Stuart Andrew: Public donations are an important source of income for charities. The data regarding trends in donations is complex and can vary depending on the measurements used. Headline figures can also mask changes in patterns of donations, such as who donates and how much they give.Government encourages charitable donations via Gift Aid, through which charities can claim an additional 25 pence on every £1 donated. For the tax year ending April 2022, this amounted to £1.3 billion which went directly to charities. Additionally, my department collaborated with charity sector stakeholders last year to encourage the public to consider donating to small charities during Small Charity Week.The Charities Aid Foundation’s UK Giving Report 2023 states the public donated an estimated £12.7 billion to charities in 2022, up from £10.7 billion in 2021. Their data indicates donors are giving greater amounts, rather than there being an increase in the number of donors. The Community Life Survey 2021/22 shows 66 percent of respondents donated to a charitable cause in the past four weeks. This proportion is higher than 2020/21, but lower than previous years.The Government is aware that for some charities, high inflation is eroding the value of donations, at a time when many charities are experiencing rising costs. The Government is committed to supporting the charitable sector, which is why, in the Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor announced a £100 million funding package for charities and community organisations in England.

Local Broadcasting: Television

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 3.7 of the policy paper entitled Up next - the Government's vision for the broadcasting sector, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the delay in the planned consultation on the renewal or relicensing of individual local television services on local (a) television services and (b) communities.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government plans to publish the consultation on local television licences.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Government recognises the important contribution and impact that local TV services make to our broadcasting ecosystem and for those across the UK, particularly in their role disseminating relevant news and engaging with local communities.In the Broadcasting White Paper, we announced our intention to make changes to the local TV licensing regime to enable the renewal of the local TV multiplex licence – which would otherwise expire in November 2025 – until 2034. We committed to consulting on the conditions for renewal of the multiplex licence, and on our approach to the renewal or relicensing of the 34 local TV services that broadcast from it and whose licences also expire in November 2025.The Government understands the desire of the sector for clarity on this important issue and intends to publish the consultation shortly. We are confident that this timeline will allow any renewal or relicensing process to complete well ahead of the 2025 deadline.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is aware of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling and we are committed to ensuring fair and legally compliant statutory holiday payments. We are reviewing our policy and procedures to ensure that we are compliant with the ruling and expect the impact to be minimal, given there is minimal use of regular overtime within the department that is not remunerated through role specific allowances.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Water

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Attorney General, what progress his Department has made on achieving water neutrality on his Department's estate.

Michael Tomlinson: The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) leases part of an estate which is managed by the Ministry of Justice and the Government Property Agency. The AGO therefore does not manage the quality of the water on the estate.

Attorney General: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2023 to Question 177871 on Attorney General: Disability, whether she plans to take steps to increase the proportion of her Department's employees who identify as having a disability.

Michael Tomlinson: The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is an inclusive employer which promotes equality and aims to reflect the diversity of the society in which we live. The AGO is committed to maximising the skills and potential of all employees. All recruitment campaigns welcome applications from suitably qualified persons irrespective of disability, race, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status or religion/belief.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on eligible persons not receiving the Warm Home Discount because of delays to documents being sent to energy suppliers by that Department.

Amanda Solloway: Over 90% of households eligible for a Warm Home Discount rebate this year were identified through data matching and received their rebates automatically from their energy supplier.The Government is aware of delays affecting some households’ rebates. This primarily affects customers who submitted their claim for a rebate via correspondence or where additional information was needed about a customer’s claim. These claims are being processed as quickly as possible.